Posted on 10/08/2004 8:49:00 PM PDT by missyme
AN elusive giant ape has been spotted in remote forests in central Africa, sparking theories that it could be a new species of primate - a finding that would be the most astonishing wildlife discovery in decades, New Scientist says.
In a report published in next Saturday's issue, the British weekly says the mysterious creatures have been seen in forests around the towns of Bondo and Bili, in the far north of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
From the rare eyewitness sightings, bone discoveries and a video recording, the animals have large, black faces, are up to 2m tall and weighs between 85-102kg.
That would put them in the size category of gorillas - but the region lies 500km from the edges of the known habitats of the western and eastern species of gorilla.
The creature's face is gorilla-like and has a sagittal crest - a long bony ridge - that is typical of gorillas.
But other aspects of the skull morphology are that of a chimpanzee, according to Colin Groves, an expert at the Australian National University in Canberra.
As for behaviour, the apes make nests on the ground like gorillas, whereas chimpanzees prefer to make their homes in the trees. But, unlike gorillas, which hate water and prefer to build a new nest every night, these primates make their beds in swampy ground and reuse them night after night.
Faeces recovered from the nest sites indicated an animal with a diet rich in fruit, which is typical of chimps.
Shelly Williams, a US primatologist affiliated to the Jane Goodall Institute in Maryland, captured the apes on video in 2002 with the help of local people and was once briefly confronted by a group of four of them in dense forest.
This, along with other evidence, makes her think that there is a chance the animals could be a new species of great primate - in other words, an undiscovered genetic relative of humans.
Other possibilities are that it is a gorilla-chimp hybrid, or a new sub-species of chimp that would be 50 per cent bigger than its largest cousins.
Anecdotal evidence about the unusual apes dates back to photos taken by European hunters in 1898, when the region was the Belgian Congo.
The trail was then picked up in 1996 by Karl Ammann, a Kenyan-based Swiss photographer, who was intrigued by local tales that the forests were inhabited by large ferocious apes that could kill lions.
Unlike gorillas, which invariably charge when they see a threat, these apes turn around and silently slip away into the forest when encountered, says Mr Ammann.
The discovery of these apes "reveals just how much we still have to learn about our closest living relatives," New Scientist notes, expressing concern that animals could be "poached out of existence" unless conservation measures are urgently taken to protect them.
Your right...she was the one that was axed...
None/all of the above?? LOL
Janet Reno!
I'm blind!
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
...or so I've been told by a Vietnam vet who learned to at least tolerate it while "in country".
LOL!
bump until I get some sleep.
That would be 78 inches (6'6')tall and 224 pounds maximum. About the same size as an NFL end.
Ping Kong. I know the crevo threads have been put on hold, but I found this interesting.
After November 2.
That is interesting .....considering that Africa has one of the smallest forest-to-area, as well as total area, of forests in the world. Infact the continents of North America (yeah, us guys in terms of both percentage and total area), South America (in both percentage and total), Europe (yep ...them too in terms of percentage area but NOT total area) and Asia (once you add the great Siberian 'Taiga' forests ....infact Russia by itself has more forest than Africa ....multiplied 6 times) ALL pass by Africa by a HUGE margin. Infact Africa is basically denuded, and has always been.
Most of Africa is Savannah, with deserts in the north (Sahara) and south (Namib). The only forests that can be found are those in and around central Africa (starting from the Virungas where east and central meet, up to the Congo basin). That is where you find the type of flora that one would see in 1930s Tarzan flicks. Otherwise Africa is almost entirely grassland, with desert taking up the second position.
The whole 'Jungle-Africa' is a myth that has been perpetuated for ages. True, there are deeply forested areas, but those are tiny as a percentage (again, both in terms of percentage ratio as well as total size, N.America and Europe surpass Africa in terms of trees ....infacf Russia by itself has more trees than Africa). If you want to see the type of foliage normally associated with Africa go to the jungles of Brazil, or those of S.E Asia. However for some reason there is this image of lliana vines, huge magrove swamps, and jungles that stretch for eternity in Africa. Are they there? Yes, in the Congo. But Africa is nowhere near the other continents (with the exception of Antartica and depending on how you look at it Australia) when it comes to forests/jungles/however-ya-wanna-call-it. Virtually all of the 'great African jungles' you have seen come from either the Virungas or the Congo Basin.
Forest Area in Thousands of square kilometers
Africa 527
Asia 844
North America 3,737
South America 4,439
Europe 14
Russia 3,448
Oceania 319
The whole 'African jungle' thing is perpetuated by people who base their knowledge of Africa (and the world) on b-grade movies, or people who happened to visit one of the areas that have jungle. Infact a simple look at a global foliage map would show Africa oscillates between Savannah and desert (with Savannah being numero uno and arid/semi-arid desert a close second).
I must've had my facts mixed up, as I was pulling that from memory. I know ran across some statistic like this when doing some research on arable land, development and forestation as it relates to carbon sequestering. In fact, maybe it was related to one of these other minor statistics.
I wasn't confused by any myths or anything, I was (very poorly) trying to recall some statistics that do suggest that Africa is highly under-developed in terms of land use compared to the rest of the world. Thanks for the correction though on the forestation.
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